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TRAVELODGE IS THE UK'S FIRST HOTEL BRAND TO LAUNCH AN ELECTRONIC CHARITY DONATION BOX

8th Dec 2010

Leading budget hotel chain Travelodge is delighted to announce it's the UK's first hotel brand to partner up with The Pennies Foundation - Britain's only charity to provide online retailers with an electronic donation charity box.

From 20th January 2011, Travelodge customers will have the opportunity to round up the price of their room and food purchase to the nearest pound with just one click - when booking online. The revenue of the additional pennies generated via this channel will be equally split 75% to Travelodges nominated charities; Cancer Research UK and KidsOut with the remaining 25% contribution going to other UK charities nominated by The Pennies Foundation.

Travelodge is expecting to raise over 200,000 for its nominated charities via Pennies and a calendar of fundraising activities throughout the UK in 2011.

Guy Parsons, Travelodges CEO said: "During this summer we ran a company-wide initiative and asked our 6,000 members of staff to nominate two charities they would like to support in 2011. The consensus was Cancer Research UK and a small children's charity called KidsOut."

"At present our 460 hotel teams and head office departments are currently planning their fund raising activities and it looks like we could hold over 1,000 charity events next year."

"In addition to our staff fundraising, we are delighted to be the UK's first hotel company to launch an online charity donation box in partnership with Pennies. As we are an e-retailer of sleep and over 87% of our bookings are conducted via the web it made perfect sense to adopt an online donation service. Now our customers have the option to round up their room purchase to the nearest pound and the pennies contributed will make a big difference to our nominated charities."

"I am confident we will easily smash our target of £200,000 and this money will certainly make a difference towards the wonderful work Cancer Research UK and KidsOut do."

Travelodge is Pennies second company supporting its electronic charity box. The first company was Domino's Pizza who went live in November and within the first month of launch they have had over 50,000 customers donate.

Alison Hutchinson, The Pennies Foundation, CEO said: "With over eight million visitors expected to visit www.travelodge.co.uk during 2011, I am confident that our electronic charity box will be a great success. Pennies really are powerful. If eight pence was given by just half of the UK's card holders, this would generate an additional £89 million every year, which is staggering. I am looking forward to Pennies becoming a familiar sight on our high streets and online and I am delighted to be on this journey with such a popular brand as Travelodge."

Claire Rowney, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Cancer Research UK, said: "Were delighted to be working with Travelodge. Sadly, more than one in three people will be affected by cancer at some point in their lives. Progress is being made - we have saved millions of lives by discovering new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer - but more work needs to be done. With Travelodges help we can continue to fund our life-saving research."

David Cosham, KidsOut CEO, said: "I am delighted that such a well known company like Travelodge has decided to support KidsOut. This partnership will make a huge difference to our charity and will have a major impact to all the work we do to support disadvantaged children across the UK"